captain1976

A little off the subject of this thread, but

I was fascinated by parachutes since I was about 7 and jumped with a knapsack off my porch.

Made my own parachute about 1963 when I was 10.

I took our round pool cover and since we lived in a horse ranching community in upstate New York, I used bailing twine for the suspension lines.

I inflated it on the ground near the road and a guy riding his horse got knocked off when the horse got scared and reared up.
I remember it actually looked like a real parachute though the only ones I had ever seen were on the TV series Ripcord.

Ironically the first real parachute I ever saw was mine on my first jump. I trained in the winter and 3 weeks after waiting for good weather I was the first one out on the first load.

threecats407

Dragging up an ancient thread. I was cleaning out a desk drawer and ran into my lowly 25 jump career logbook all made at Bristol. Names that are gone now that signed that log book. Maybe more that I don't know of.
Bud O'Conner
Rick O.

Have some names I can kind of make out and wonder if any are still making jumps. Phil Coe, Larry Lattish?, W. Lesjak?, Jeffery Rich, others I can't read all from 82 and 83.

So odd that my first and last jumps had Bud as my jump master. I wonder if that Beaver is still flying?

Hey, Bill Lesjak still jumps and shows up at East Troy on occasion but not sure about the rest. We lost Rick O in '92 from the Beech crash at Hinkley and I think Bud was around 83 in Sandwich from a freefall collision with John T.

Found it interesting even though its a 12 year old thread. Anyway I agree from a previous post that there is nothing that says the seal must remain on though everyone thinks it must, including Riggers.

The suggestion that a call to the FAA for clarification simply gets an opinion from an employee and does not constitute a clear and absolute FAR.

It was the practice when I got my rating in the early 70's and even a suggestion from the FAA Examiner that I use a pliers to smash a lead seal on a repack and then scratch my code into the seal until my press arrived.

Being a Pilot and familiar with most of the Florida DZ's I can't think of a solution and I don't think i'd try the swoop ponds

riggerrob

The Mirage update was driven by a problem identified in Europe.
Several European skydivers scared their Cypri, then wondered why their reserves hesitated.
You have to make multiple mistakes to kill yourself, but one of the mistakes is installing way too long a reserve closing loop. If the pilot chute spring squeezes the closing loop against the edge of a grommet, it might delay the pilot-chute launch. The longer the loop, the greater the risk of hesitation. If I have more than 1/2 inch slack - when I close a reserve - I re-open it and install a shorter closing loop.
The EU insisted that several (European-made) containers (Atom, Icon, Next, etc.) be modified to move the AAD cutter higher in the reserve container ... above the pilot-chute. I modified several Atoms and Mirages to the new configuration.
The update is optional for Icons in North America, bf I owned an Icon, I would update the AAD cutter location to above the pilot-chute spring.

Thanks for the info Rob, makes a lot of sense.

Yes, welcome back to this great sport

gowlerk

You need to dig around the support section of the Mirage Systems website. Or let me do it for you.

http://www.miragesys.com/media/supportarticle/AAD%20Installation%20instructions.pdf

Actually I did try to find the answer while packing it. Tried calling their website listed contact phone number which only gave me a fax tone. And you would think this Addendum which is dated 2004 would at least be given with a rig purchased in 2013

pchapman

Maybe I'm missing something but it sounds normal for a Mirage in the last 10 years or so? They used to have the cutter under the first flap (just ontop of the freebag) but put out a bulletin and moved it to get it 'closer to the pin'.

With the cutter above the PC it made the Mirage 'bulgy' (top flap and pin cover flap) until they started making the dished-top pilot chutes to make a bit of a well for the cutter and partially get rid of the bulginess.

Great, thanks to both. I must have the older manual and I feel better knowing someone didn't goof
Blue Skies

Purchased a new Mirage a few months back and the dealer packed my reserve as part of their service.

I'm a Rigger and for years I only pack my reserve and some round pilot rigs for friends. I didn't argue about a free assembly and pack job.

Packing it for the first time today I noticed that the AAD cutter comes out of a sewn-on holder just under closing flap 3. This means that with #2 being the pilot chute itself, the cutter is on top of the pilot chute and under the remaining flaps, No 4, 5 & 6.

Contrary to the manual, I continued and packed it up like it was before.

Question for those in the know; is this OK? I don't see anything particularly wrong with it and any comments are appreciated.

You had Hinkley and I had Hebron. I remember renting each other aircraft when needed.
Blue Skies Forever

Rescheduled for Sunday 12:00 because of weather. Great memorial service with a lot of great speakers today

Thanks for that great story Jerry

I'm thinking of a Solo II as well but can't find the dimensions anywhere. I want to make sure it fits in my helmet

I jumped Dolphins for 15 years and really like them. They were built by the guy who designed the Javelin and are basically the same.
I too heard that they were recently bought out by another company but that shouldn't effect anything.
Good Luck

Someone gave me a few military style B-4 back packs last year that were used as civilian pilot rigs.

Packing cards revealed all were packed in the early to mid 70's. A couple of these would have worked just fine and were in mint condition, however a couple more were so stiff they probably would have only left he container on impact.

Be nice to older jumpers. Though we don’t always fit in at DZ’s with predominantly younger jumpers, we are human too and can’t do much about our age.

andrewhilton

I have a copy of the manual if you want it for completeness, but packing it is as described in this thread. PM me if you'd like a copy of the .pdf file

A jumpable Crossbow main is a pretty rare canopy nowadays - take of that thing!

Thanks and thanks to all that responded. I'm going to take it out this weekend and open it up. I will know more about what I got and try to configure it to jump. Will post some pix of it here

Found this old canopy which is in such good condition, I'm gonna set it up for the younger guys to jump as I did with a PC.

Can anyone come up with a packing manual/instructions? I really don't know where to start. I also need a bag or sleeve for it but can probably have Billy Weber make one.

grue

***Might be time for you to do some reading about the NSA......

The US government are a bunch of assholes, but compared to Australia it is MUCH less of a beige cardigan-wearing nannyocracy.

I love Australia, I've lived here almost 1/3 of my life, but the abundance of cowardice in the form of overregulation of every conceivable thing drives me batshit fucking crazy.

Overregulation is typical in most governments. Like you I love my country, I just have no stomach for my government.

It should be remembered that regulations like most laws in your country as well as mine come from dysfunctional people like Politicians.

This garbage who can't get a real job must show some kind of performance to justify their useless positions.

I'm one of those in 2010 that got spanked pretty hard, and on a 220 Spectre to boot.

But since then I had relines with Dacron and my newest Spectre made with them.

Hopefully if I ever get wacked again I won't have to sit out the 3 months on the ground that one cost me.

Fast

******When's the last time you had the Alti calibrated?

I just got it back from a new face place install. I assume it was calibrated then but am not positive they do it automatically on units in for service

Mike we have an altitude chamber that you can put it in and test it. Talk to Mary or Brian about it.

Will do since I just happen to be here for a week, but I'm going to look into the static thing anyway as I have seen these digitals actually stay at the same altitude on occasion while in freefall. I'm also going to do some research on the subject and report on it.

Just did a frame freeze on the airport and its DeLand. Just what we don't need, another incident!

Remster

When's the last time you had the Alti calibrated?

I just got it back from a new face place install. I assume it was calibrated then but am not positive they do it automatically on units in for service

I suspected my hand altimeter to be inaccurate for some time but today I took another one to cross check and the attached pictures show what they each read at pull time and just a couple seconds later when opened.

Pretty much the same thing on 3 jumps. Just wondering if anyone else has the same issues with the digital units.

ryoder

***
I'm not sure what it takes to title a vehicle in Fla, but you usually need a residence of some sort.

"Down by the river"?

easiest way, register it in a company name, anyone can open a company for real cheap and use an address of someone you know.